Hey that looks familiar!  

Years ago, when DWR canned...
Years ago, when DWR canned all the repro bauhaus stuff in favor of adding Cassina and Knoll etc, they boasted themselves as the ethical modern furniture place not selling repros any longer.
American Modern has been around making Eames and Nelson knockoffs for years. They have a website...
They often put a lot of product on eBay even ... usually at really low prices. A friend bought one of their case study bed repros for like 500 or 600 bucks.... For one reason or another he sold it quickly after.

a different day a different mantra......
"in-stock and ready to ship"
"knock-offs are us"
"your source for licensed classics"
"modern kids"
"modern bedding"
"basics"
"OMG we are completely tanking! fire sale every week for a year!"
"knock offs are us"
.....please dwr, just finally dry up and blow away...... you make everyone's head hurt. you built an un-sustainable infrastructure and you don't care about anything but money and being a corporate douche-lord.
we aint buying your bullshit anymore.

Why all of the animosity?
The licensed knock off debate has raged continually on this board until I get headache just reading the titles. I cannot believe that they still generate dozens of posts with each iteration. Everyone has stated their position by now, and that horse is Long dead.
If you do not like a vender then take your business elsewhere. I can only guess that you have not owned a business and have no idea the difficult decisions required to remain viable in a fluid dynamic and challenging market place.
In the past year or so, DWR has been bashed repeatedly. I do not recall one post that specifically stated that the buyer was unhappy with their service or products. Rather, I have seen repeated entries razzing nearly every retailer with name recognition, among them Modernica and a mail order place in Atlanta that went out of business.
I find the DWR catalogs nice, and informative for the general public and design layman. The graphics are clean the pictures pretty. It could look like any other mail order catalog but instead it gives single paragraph designer biographies and a thumbnail photo, actively promoting the person or firm behind the product.
I usually pass the catalogs along to non design friends and neighbors who wonder why my house looks the way it does. The catalogs help to demystify my eccentricities and I receive positive feedback about them all the time; besides, I do not like to loan out Modernism magazine if it is returned it has been drooled all over.
I have not been to a DWR store nor have I ordered from their catalog; but, I can wager that I would be like a kid in a candy shop if I visited a showroom.

wow
Chewbacca rug is going after DWR. What a surprise. I have no problem discussing issues of copy-catting things, or quality, but I really loathe this vendetta crap.
(WhiteSpike, on a side note, I don't think the American Modern stuff DWR sells is associated with American Modern the furniture company. The Nelson bed is totally different between the two.)

bustelo
You mean you would grab as many chairs as you can possibly handle, and shove them in your pockets??!!!

You don't think it's the...
You don't think it's the same company? Weird that DWR would choose a name already being used in the marketplace for knock-offs...

I doubt it
I just looked closely at DWRs AM collection and everything about it is different...the hardware, the styling, the dimensions. Also DWR is claiming authoriship (after being 'influenced by' Nelson).
I think it's just an unfortunate name choice for an unfortunate product. In other interesting, unfortunate name changes, see the link below from this weeks' Times.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/a-name-only-a-lawyer-could-...

Chairs-Umm yummy
Woody I had not planned the whole escape out, but now that you mention it I should have lots of Big pockets and maybe a little red wagon.
I was only intending to sample all of the wares and drool on the displays in my fantasy shopping spree. Of course I would plan to take the following day off to recover from an upset tummy from over-consumption.

bringing knock-offs to a whole new level.......
as long as companies continue to go out of their way to produce and sell knock-offs, the debate will rage on this forum.
those who do sell knock-offs should at least be called out, if not sued.
what DWR is doing with their knock-offs is in a sense even more diabolical than simply sourcing a knock-off from a producer. they have deliberately gone out of their way to take designs such as the heller chair (just one example) in-house and create a knock-off version..... completely disrespecting the authorship and ownership of the design. what makes this particularly egregious is the blatant betrayal of any sort of reasonable ethical standards..... DWR cultivated relationships with the designers and manufacturers of the pieces mentioned in the initial thread at top and then stole their work ! in short it is a peculiar brand of socio-pathic behavior. not at all "friendly".
and its NOT okay by any reasonable standards. even in this day and age there is still something called right and wrong, if you lose sight of basic decency in an effort to make a buck, then in my opinion you do not deserve the right to continue.
you can't have it both ways, either you are a source for decency and do not infringe on others rights and you respect authorship and ownership of intellectual property, or you embrace dishonesty and steel people's work and livli-hoods.
you can't on one hand proclaim yourself a source for licensed reproductions, and on another ruthlessly knock-off lesser known designer's work. even donald rumsfeld and dick cheney would be proud of this effort of duplicity and double-speak.

this knock-off behavior smacks of sociopathy...........
Profile of the Sociopath
This website summarizes some of the common features of descriptions of the behavior of sociopaths:
Glibness and Superficial Charm (false friendliness to designers and mfgs prior to dwr knocking off their designs. cheerful presentation of knock-offs to public)
Manipulative and Conning
They never recognize the rights of others and see their self-serving behaviors as permissible. They appear to be charming, yet are covertly hostile and domineering, seeing their victim as merely an instrument to be used. They may dominate and humiliate their victims. (calling their knock-off bellini chair the "alonzo" a play on words of the name "Alan" Heller.
Grandiose Sense of Self
Feels entitled to certain things as "their right."
Lack of Remorse, Shame or Guilt
Does not see others (designers, mfgs) around them as people, but only as targets and opportunities. Instead of friends, they have victims and accomplices who end up as victims. The end always justifies the means and they let nothing stand in their way.
Callousness/Lack of Empathy
Unable to empathize with the pain of their victims, having only contempt for others' feelings of distress and readily taking advantage of them.
http://Profile of the Sociopath

and
and you're the only person who seems to care...

not true.....
inquire with a few of the designers and manufacturers who have been ripped off.
ask the eames office, the nelson estate, knoll, herman miller, fritz hansen, cassina etc....
they all care about knock-offs and would agree with the above.
ask "Alonzo Heller" how he feels about DWR stealing the bellini chair.